Garment marking device



Oct. 12, 1965 R. M. OHLIN 3,210,849

GARMENT MARKING DEVICE Filed Dec. 10, 1962 INVENTOR. 4/ 4 2044mm; M. w/z/A/ United States Patent O 3,210,849 GARMENT MARKING DEVICE Romaine M. Ohlin, 409 /2 S. Almanzor,

' Alhambra, Calif. Filed Dec. 10, 1962, Ser. No. 243,336 3 Claims. (Cl. 339) This invention relates to garment marking devices and more particularly to an improved and simplified device equally suitable for use in dress shops or by the home seamstress to mark hemlines and the like of articles of clothing with accuracy and certainty under the control of a person wearing the garment to be marked without assistance from any other person.

Marking devices of the type to which the present invention relates have been proposed heretofore, but these have been subject to certain disadvantages and shortcomings thought to be overcome by the present invention. For example, certain prior constructions are characterized by their bulkiness and comprise an excessive and unnecessary number of components. Others are unnecessarily costly and are difficult to operate, particularly by a sin le operator.

These and other shortcomings of prior marking devices are overcome by the present invention which is characterized by its simplicity, lightness, demountability, and positive action, as well as by its convenience and ease of use. Only a single supporting standard is required. Adjustably supported along this standard by means avoiding need for adjustable clamping fasteners is a bracket for the chalk-dispensing and marking hoop. The latter is held asembled to the bracket by a single fastener and comprises a lightweight tube provided with a continuous slot opening inwardly along a horizontal plane. The marking powder is contained within a nonrefillable reservoir connected in circuit with a flexible tube and a squeeze bulb. The marking powder is dispensed along the tube and through the continuous slot in response to manipulation of the squeeze bulb by the user. Once the material has been consumed it is merely necessary to substitute a replacement charge reservoir easily and quickly accomplished without risk of spilling and marking fluid material.

Accordingly it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a simplified and improved garment marking device characterized by its simplicity, effectiveness, reliability and the ease with which it can be assembled for use and demounted after use.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved marking device featuring a dispensing reservoir of a nonrefillable type so designed as to be easily and simply connected in circuit with the squeeze bulb.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a marking device for garments featuring a pedestal having a marking material dispensing hoop clampable in any desired position therealong without need for ad justable fasteners having moving parts.

These and other more specifiic objects will appear upon reading the following specificationand claims and upon considering in connection therewith the attached drawings to which they relate.

Referring now to the drawings in which a preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the marking device assembled for use;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary view on enlarged scale partly in section showing details of the adjustable support for the marking tube bracket and taken along line 2-2 on FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line 33 on FIGURE 1 showing structural details of the marking material reservoir; and

ice

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional View of the the dispensing device taken along broken line 4-4 of FIGURE 3.

Referring more particularly to FIGURE 1, there is shown a preferred embodiment of the marking device designated generally 10. This device comprises a pedestal 11, marking material dispensing hoop 12 and a squeeze bulb 13 for supplying marking powder to this hoop from a storage reservoir 14.

The pedestal comprises an upright lightweight tube 15 suitably rigidly connected to a weighted base 16 resting on the floor. Desirably, tube 15 is provided with a measuring scale along one or more sides indicating the height of the hoop above the floor level. Suitably secured to the upper end of tube 15 is a spring clip 17 for resiliently receiving and supporting squeeze bulb 13 in a convenient position to be grasped by the user.

Slidably supported along tube 15 is an arcuate bracket 18 for the dispensing hoop. As here shown, this bracket is stamped from lightweight sheet metal and has a downturned flange 19 along its rim to strengthen this bracket and effective to protect the person and his clothing against injury. Suitably secured to the under mid-portion of bracket 18 is a U-shaped bracket 20 provided with an opening 21 in axial alignment with an opening 2. Firmly supported in these openings are identical rubber grommets 23, the central openings 24 of which have a sliding frictional fit with the outer surface of tube 15. It will be understood that bracket 18 is slidable along tube 15 when firmly grasped and pulled in one direction or the other along the tube, but that the grommets 23 are effective to anchor this bracket firmly in any adjusted position to which it is moved. This locking action is enhanced by the fact that the load carried by bracket 18 always acts downwardly from a point offset laterally from the axis of tube 15. For this reason the bracket tends to pivot away from the horizontal causing both grommets to press against the tube more firmly thereby increasing the frictional contact with the tube.

Projecting upwardly from the center of bracket 18 is a screw 26 which is welded, brazed, or otherwise firmly secured in place. A mounting member 27 secured to hoop 12 has an opening 28 sized to fit over the shank of screw 26. A thumbnut 29 threaded over the upper end of this screw serves to clamp member 27 rigidly in place on bracket 18.

Preferably and as here shown, hoop 12 is formed from narrow strip metal the edges of which are rolled toward one another to form a tube having a narrow slot 31 extending the full length thereof and formed by the closely spaced apart lateral edges of the strip material. This slot faces radially inwardly as is made clear by FIG- URES 1 and 2. The opposite ends of this hoop are securely anchored in any suitable manner to bores opening through the opposite faces of mounting member 27 and into a well 33. A tubular fitting 34 is threaded or otherwise secured to the upper end of well 33 and seats the discharge end of a flexible hose or tube 35.

The nonrefillable supply reservoir 14 for the marking material and forming an important feature of the invention is best shown in FIGURES 3 and 4. As there shown by way of example, the reservoir comprises two tubes of transparent plastic material 40, 41 fused together at 42. The ends of the lower or powder-charged tube 41 are permanently closed by plugs 45, 45 and similar but apertured plugs 46, 46' are similarly mounted in the opposite ends of upper tube 40. Tubes 40 and 41 are in communication with one another through a small port 48. End cap 46 is provided with a threaded aperture 49 for receiving the tubular fitting 50 of squeeze bulb 13, there being an O-ring or other gasket 51 mounted about the threaded portions of fitting 50.

The discharge of powder chalk or other marking material 52 contained in tube 41 is preferably controlled by means now to be described and including irnperforate tube 53 telescoped over a tubular nipple formed on the inner side of cap 46. A threaded tube 54 is adjustably supported in an opening through end cap 46' and is provided with a plurality of ports 55. Its innermost end is of smaller diameter than tube 53 for reasons which will become apparent presently. Tube 54 is provided with a tapered end 56 over which hose 35 fits and is held detachably in space thereon as by low height ribs or the like and is adjustable in end cap 46' to vary the position of its ports 55, 55 with respect to port 48 and also to vary the degree of overlap of tubes 53 and 54. This adjustment is found highly effective in varying the quantity of powder which is dispensed upon manipulation of the squeeze bulb.

In operation marking device It is set up as illustrated in FIGURE 1. Normally hoop 12 and its mounting member 27 will be detached from bracket 18. The hoop is assembled by removing the thumbnut 29 and then placing mounting member 27 over screw 26 with portions of the hoop to either side of mounting member 27 firmly supported on the outer ends of bracket 18 and against the backstops thereon. The thumbnut is then firmly tightened over the upper end of the screw. If hose is not already attached to tubular fitting 34 of the distributing hoop, the hose is pressed over the upper end of this fitting.

The next step is to adjust bracket 18 and the attached hoop 12 along tube 15 until the hoop lies at the desired height above the fioor level. This condition is assured when the horizontally disposed distributing slot 31 of the hoop lies at the elevation desired for the lower edge of the skirt or other garment to be marked. To change the adjusted position, the user grasps bracket 18 in an area closed to tube 15 and shifts it longitudinally of the tube until slot 31 is at the desired height. Once this is achieved, the self-clamping rubber grommets grip tube 15 and lock the bracket and hoop firmly in the new position.

The user, wearing the garment to be marked, then steps into hoop 12 and makes certain that the garment is properly adjusted and lying inside the hoop and that tube contains powder. Squeeze bulb 13 is collapsed one or more times. This causes a flow of air to pass along the tube 35. As the air moves through reservoir 14 considerable turbulence is created and this is effective to entrain marking powder and pass it through ports into tube 54 and thence along hose 35 and into hoop 12 for dispersion horizontally inward against the garment to be marked. This powder adheres firmly to the garment in a narrow line. The operator replaces the squeeze bulb in clip 17 and steps from the hoop.

The charge of powder within reservoir 14 is adequate to mark many garments before becoming exhausted. When this does occur, the used merely unscrews squeeze bulb 13 from one end of reservoir 14 and detaches hose 35 from the other. A new reservoir charged with marking power is then inserted in lieu of the exhausted reservoir and the marking device is ready for continued use.

Although the drawings, and particularly FIGURE 2, illustrate a pair of grommets 23 of resilient material providing an adjustable friction clutch between bracket 18 and tube 15, it will be understood that a single sleeve of resilient material may be substituted. This sleeve may comprise a plain cylindrical member sufficiently long to span the distance between the present pair of grommets and having an annular fiangc overlying and bonded or otherwise secured to bracket member 18. It will be understood that the bore of this sleeve fits tube 15 rather snugly and permits the bracket and hoop 12 to be adjusted freely to any desired position and to retain the bracket and hoop firmly in any adjusted position.

While the particular garment marking device herein shown and disclosed in detail is fully capable of attaining the objects and providing the adventages hereinbefore stated, it is to be understood that it is merely illustrative of the presently preferred embodiment of the invention and that no limitations are intended to the details of construction or design herein shown other than as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A garment marking device comprising:

(a) a pedestal having an upright column,

(b) bracket means slidable along said column and including friction gripping means having resilient upper and lower annular portions made of elastomeric material effective to hold said bracket firmly in place along said column, said bracket means carrying a load which always acts downwardly from a point offset laterally from the longitudinal axis of said column, thereby tending to pivot said bracket away from the horizontal and causing said resilient upper and lower portions to press against said column more firmly in opposite directions and increasing the frictional contact with said column,

(c) ring-like tubular powder-dispensing means detachably mounted in a horizontal plane on said bracket and having an inwardly opening narrow slot extending therealong in a horizontal plane, and

(d) squeeze-bulb means connected to said tubular powder-dispensing means for discharging a stream of powder thereto and out of said slot for delivery against a garment supported vertically within said powder dispensing means.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 in which said resilient upper and lower portions are a pair of grommets.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 2 in which said bracket is arcuate in shape and has a pair of arms extending in opposite directions and horizontally from said column, and including, in addition, a single fastener means located centrally thereof for detachably securing said powder-dispensing means to said bracket with portions of said powder-dispensing means overlying and resting upon the remote ends of said bracket arms, said powder dispensing means being removable from said bracket as an intact unit.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 526,741 10/94 Rees 222193 780,330 1/05 Egert 222193 876,362 1/08 La May 222l93 881,484 3/08 Peck 339 1,002,680 9/11 Gutman 339.1 1,003,692 9/11 Bennet 33-9 1,321,375 11/19 James 339.1 1,404,318 1/22 Price 339.l 2,672,689 3/54 Politziner 339.1

OTHER REFERENCES German printed application (Urbigkait), K 21,733 XII/47f, 10/55.

ISAAC LISANN, Primary Examiner. 

1. A GARMENT MARKING DEVICE COMPRISING: (A) A PEDESTAL HAVING AN UPRIGHT COLUMN, (B) BRACKET MEANS SLIDABLE ALONG SAID COLUMN AND INCLUDING FRICTION GRIPPING MEANS HAVING RESILIENT UPPER AND LOWER ANNULAR PORTIONS MADE OF ELASTOMERIC MATERIAL EFFECTIVE TO HOLD SAID BRACKET FIRMLY IN PLACE ALONG SAID COLUMN, SAID BRACKET MEANS CARRYING A LOAD WHICH ALWAYS ACTS DOWNWARDLY FROM A POINT OFFSET LATERALLY FROM THE LONGITUDINAL AXIS OF SAID COLUMN, THEREBY TENDING TO PIVOT SAID BRACKET AWAY FROM THE HORIZONTAL AND CAUSING SAID RESILIENT UPPER AND LOWER PORTIONS TO PRESS AGAINST SAID COLUMN MORE FIRMLY IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS AND INCREASING THE FRICTIONAL CONTACT WITH SAID COLUMN, (C) RING-LIKE TUBULAR POWDER-DISPENSING MEANS DETACHABLY MOUNTED IN A HORIZONTAL PLANE ON SAID BRACKET AND HAVING AN INWARDLY OPENING NARROW SLOT EXTENDING THEREALONG IN A HORIZONTAL PLANE, AND (D) SQUEEZE-BULB MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID TUBULAR POWDER-DISPENSING MEANS FOR DISCHARGING A STREAM OF POWDER THERETO AND OUT OF SAID SLOT FOR DELIVERY AGAINST A GARMENT SUPPORTED VERTICALLY WITHIN SAID POWDER DISPENSING MEANS. 